Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Critical Analysis: Who is Yair Lapid?

Even though I wrote this below, I believed it deserved it's own post.

1. Yair Lapid is already predicting he will be Israel's next prime minister. Unfortunately, he never finished high school, or completed his baguryot
(high-school matriculation exams) or went to college. However, as a
media personality he got into Bar Ilan's accelerated doctorate program
-- which is supposed to only be for those who finished an undergraduate
degree with honors...he was eventually thrown out of the program
for not meeting the admission requirements. Granted there are many
autodidacts who lack academic accreditation and attain success in
business or academics or education; Lapid isn't one of them (keep
reading).

Lapid
explains why the US Constitution is work of art -- because it was
penned by a single author [sic], John Adams[sic], as opposed to a
committee [sic] -- which is the way Israel is attempting to create
one.

Israel's proposed constitution by consensus is
an erudite text, maybe overly so. It lacks the emotional depth of the
US constitution, not to mention the moral courage of the “Founding
Fathers” to deal with controversial issues. It could be that the
different way in which the two constitutions were written influenced
their content.

One very inspired man, John Adams, wrote
the US constitution. The Israeli proposal by consensus, with all due
respect to Meir Shamgar, the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court,
was written by a committee.

It would have helped had Lapid has the time, energy or acumen to at least read the Wikipedia article on the US Constitution
to know that it WAS written by committee, not one man, and certainly
not John Adams who wasn't even on the committee or in the US at the
time, he was in London. If you think that's embarrassing, its only the
tip of iceberg.

Here's a short video
(in Hebrew) with a whole slew of intellectual gaffs by Lapid which
appears to show a pattern of attempts to drop names and facts which
aren't that factual or connected.

4. Since entering
politics a year ago, Yair Lapid tries to portray himself in the
political center, however he has always been far to the left. Before
entering into politics, he spoke his true colors to Germany's Der Spiegel:

Yair Lapid: The greatest tragedy of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that everyone knows how it will end. We
will divide up the region. Israel will return most of the West Bank,
and the Palestinian flag will fly on public buildings in East
Jerusalem. The only unanswered question is how many more people
will have to die along the way. And so we will fight against the
extremists on both sides, including our extremists, the settlers. When you look at the history of wars, they ultimately revolve around one claim: "My god is better than yours."

It's clear that Lapid is intent on splitting Jerusalem, something Dov Lipman
adamantly denies. He hates settlers and is intent on ensuring
we all know who the "extremists" are. Lipman has gone on record saying
that he's in favor of keeping settlement blocs -- as an FYI, this means
Hebron will be of Israeli control (and it also makes you an extremist to expect the Cave of
the Patriarchs will remain under Israeli control).

5. While Dov Lipman claims that the "real" Jewish Home is his own "Yesh Atid" party, Yair Lapid's Jewish Home is a Reform Temple in Tel-Aviv.
I have no issue with Lapid's connection to the Reform movement in
Israel, or even providing them with funding which they deserve. I am
concerned that the lowest common denominator of Judaism in Israel will
be changed (religious status quo of halachic Jewishness), which will
fracture the Jewish people in Israel, prevent marriages, and will result
in far more disunity than unity.

While many have been extolling
the virtues of Lapid, he's simply a popular media personality who lacks
the intellectual depth, and moral/ethical foundations required to be a
serious leader in Israel, let alone Prime Minister.

Jameel: I think you're a little too hard on R' Lipman. I also think he's been taken, but he's an honest and sincere person, and to that end, I'll predict that he'll quit the Yesh Atid faction before this Knesset completes its term.

I would assume that R' Lipman and the other 17 people riding Lapid's coattails into the Knesset will go their own ways prior to loosing the next election. Isn't that always the way it is with the rock-star parties?

"While I think that Yair Lapid’s party is simply a respin of existing centrist parties, and will eventually disappear like all the previous ones (Kahalani’s Third Way, Lapid’s father’s party -- Shinui, Kadima, etc.) – yet you feel torn between voting for Lapid and Tzippi Livni, PLEASE vote for Lapid’s Yesh Atid."

Your post on Lapid is an eye-opener. I didn't know much about him, but although my older son (living in Israel) didn't vote for him, he read his "platform" after the election and seemed to think it was reasonable. With your permission, I would like to reprint your entire post on my blog. If you don't grant it, I'll be happy to link to it instead.Kol tuv.

Don't get your hopes up about him disappearing into the pages of history. That's what we thought was going to happen to Obama -- not only was he going to disappear but he would crash, burn, be obliterated and go down in history as the most laughable reject of a president ever. Yet, he was somehow re-elected. It is partly because we had a similar situation of voting for the lesser of two evils in a lot of people's opinion. And a lot of people chose wrong because of the promise of free birth control or the promise of more handouts. You very clearly pointed out Lapid's lack of knowledge on several subjects and his real feelings. Yet, people didn't care did they? It seems the delusion the people of the world are under is much stronger than facts or truth. If Israel follows the trend set in the US (and I hope NOT) -- then you are in for more of the same and probably worse.